Long Track Speed ​​Skating | A story that could have gone wrong

(Calgary) Cédrick Brunet was in heaven on October 13th. At the Canadian Championships in Calgary, the long track speed skater did the race of his life in the 500-meter. His personal best of 34.97 seconds earned him the bronze medal. On the podium, he posed with the world champion, his teammate Laurent Dubreuil.

Even if he missed the time criteria demanded by Speed ​​Skating Canada (SSC) by seven hundredths, the 20-year-old got an unexpected selection for the four fall World Cups. “I was really pampered,” he said two days ago.

But it was not in the pocket: his teammate Alex Boisvert-Lacroix and Jacob Graham, who had respectively finished 5^e and 13^e, contested their exclusion with the Sport Dispute Resolution Center of Canada (SDRCC). Their argument: they had already achieved the minimum time, unlike Brunet and Christopher Fiola, who for his part finished fourth in the championships.

“At first, I said to myself Speed ​​Skating Canada was on my side, that it should surely go well,” said Brunet, who began to prepare his luggage for Poland. “What will happen will happen. ”

Two days before his departure, in early November, he received an email from the SDRCC telling him that SSC had lost the arbitration. He and Fiola had to put aside these important competitions with a view to qualifying for the Olympic Games in Beijing.

“When I found out, I was on my ass, in cr…, really pissed off. Of course I did not take it well. At the same time, I was trying to convince myself that nothing happens for nothing. I am 21 years old, I have the whole future in front of me. That’s life, we move on to another call. ”

He also received one from the Director, High Performance, Cathy Tong. She encouraged him and told him he would have the opportunity to recover at the fourth World Cup, presented from Friday in Calgary, where Canada has a fifth entry.

Despite the uncomfortable situation, Brunet did not hold it against Boisvert-Lacroix, with whom he trained at the Intact Assurance Ice Center in Quebec. “He finished fifth, he passed his standard on multiple occasions. Having been in his place, I think I would have done the same. It was on his side, it could very well have been mine. ”

The day after the bad news, the two skaters met on the ring for a practice. Brunet immediately reassured his eldest, over 13 years old. “Alex told me not to take this personal. That he was only enforcing what was written in the Bulletin [de haute performance]. I told him, “Don’t worry, I won’t hate your face for this!” ”

“A beautiful attitude”

A month later, Boisvert-Lacroix is ​​still impressed by the conversation he was able to have with his teammate.

“He told me that he understood 100% that it was not against him, that it was a question of settlement,” said Boisvert-Lacroix. It wasn’t against the person. In no case have Christopher or Cédrick been belittled in my defense. “

Boisvert-Lacroix obviously had less pleasure in contesting the decision of his federation. He contacted several lawyers to try to assert his rights. He fell on M^e Vincent Dubuc-Cusick, specialist in business immigration for the firm Patrice Brunet Avocats.

The young lawyer agreed to take his case pro bono with his team. They spent nearly a hundred hours there, the skater learned later: “It’s such a great gift that they offered to help me for free like that, it’s crazy! ”

Even if he was convinced of the validity of his argument, Boisvert-Lacroix was far from certain of winning.

“In my head, it was a no-brainer, it was obvious [que j’avais raison]. It was more towards the system that I had my doubts. It is very rare for a sports court arbitrator to make the decision [pour la sélection]. Often he will make a suggestion and send the decision back to the federation. In this case, the federation never takes the blame and will stick to the initial decision. That’s why we really insisted that the referee make the decision himself. ”

“Unreasonable decision”

Given the urgency of the situation, the parties agreed to proceed by means of a documentary review. In addition to the arguments of the lawyers, including the two representatives of PVC, the skaters were able to make their point in a letter.

In a 19-page decision rendered on November 11, arbitrator Karine Poulin fully agreed with the reasoning of lawyers for Boisvert-Lacroix and Graham. The wording of point 4.4.2 of the Bulletin, that establishing the order of priorities in the process, was decisive. In short, she concluded that PVC did not follow its own selection criteria.

“Consequently, the Respondent’s decision [PVC] is unreasonable, not relying in any way on the applicable rules that he himself developed, she wrote. Had he applied the objective and precise criteria of the Bulletin, his decision could not have been the same. ”

Boisvert-Lacroix admits to having been affected by this whole story, on which he has ruminated for a long time.

“It wasn’t easy when I got to the first World Cup compared to the staff, the high performance program director who was our team leader the whole trip. Even today, there is a chill between us. On his part, because I went over it. ”

In its presentation to the referee, the federation asserted that “an athlete who claims to have the potential to win medals at the 2022 Olympics should be able to place in the top four in a local competition”.

The 34-year-old veteran attributes his “bad run” in October at the Canadian championships to a “course error”. Four days earlier he had passed the standard in a time test.

“That ends the discussion”

Boisvert-Lacroix’s first two World Cups in Poland and Norway did not live up to his expectations.

After a life-saving “reset” of two weeks in Montreal, he recovered at the World Cup in Salt Lake City last weekend. Fifth in Group B on Sunday, his time of 34.41 s should logically open a second quota for Canada in this event at the Beijing Olympics.

“Management hasn’t spoken to me directly about all of this yet. What’s a little ironic is that I’m the one who ranks the second spot in the 500m for the Games right now. I think that ends the discussion on the subject a bit. “

Bronze medalist at the 2016 Worlds, Boisvert-Lacroix wants to continue his progress as of Friday in Calgary. Ideally, he would finish in the top three to move up to Group A for the second 500 on Sunday. But the most important thing, in his eyes, is to reach the peak of his form at the Olympic selections in Quebec at the end of the month.

The young Brunet, he hopes that the misfortunes are behind him. Two weeks ago, he learned, two days before his departure, that a neo-senior World Cup in Germany had been canceled because of COVID-19 …

On the eve of his first ever World Cup in Calgary, he is aiming for a time of under 34.90 seconds to settle the standard issue once and for all and avoid another imbroglio.